4/30/2001 @ 1:30PM

Alternative Software

Today’s small business should seriously consider alternatives to large commercial software packages, such as
Microsoft
Office, as one way to save money. If an information technology department can’t find ways to incorporate some of the outstanding freeware and shareware into the corporate IT infrastructure, they should be replaced with more cost conscious personnel.

Shareware, freely distributed software, is paid for voluntarily when it is used. It tends to be less expensive than shrink-wrapped software and can often be better.

A type of shareware called freeware is simply given away. These tend to be programs that coders have written, usually to accomplish a specialized chore that the coders themselves need for a project. They have no interest in the hassle of marketing the software, so they give it away to others who may find it useful.

Right now, there are some outstanding money-saving office suites available. I like
Software602
‘s Office Suite, which includes a Microsoft
Word compatible word processor, an Excel-like spreadsheet program and a photo-editing program. The Jacksonville, Fla., company, founded by programmers from Prague, Czech Republic, licenses these products for free in hopes of selling future add-ins and upgrades. For an IT department on a budget or a small office that has been illegally sharing copies of Word, this package is a godsend. I’ve been using the Software602 word processor for nearly a year, and it’s been an excellent substitute for Word.

Another alternative, the $70 Ability Office Suite from the London-based
Ability Plus Software
, includes a Microsoft Access-compatible database manager. All that is missing from both 602 and the Ability Office Suit is a PowerPoint-compatible program.

Finding any competition for PowerPoint is difficult. This product has become the de facto standard for all presentations. Microsoft did an excellent job of getting everyone to use it. The best free alternative to PowerPoint seems to be StarOffice Impress, which is contained within the StarOffice Suite from
Sun Microsystems
. For $39, Sun will send you a complete CD with documentation, or you can download it for free from the Web site. The product runs on Windows, Solaris and Linux systems. Various filters allow you to exchange data from StarOffice applications to and from Microsoft applications.

StarOffice is very popular at many universities where compatibility between Windows machines and Unix-based machines is necessary. A new version, 5.2, has just been released, which includes language support for Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Obviously many newer computers are preloaded with Microsoft Office or its competitor Lotus Office, found on
IBM
systems. There is obviously no reason to use 602, Ability or Star Office if you are given these suites as part of a bundle.

But many individuals and companies are turning more and more towards white box

computers, which can be quite inexpensive. In the upcoming releases of Windows XP and the newest versions of Office, Microsoft will be requiring that users register with the company or the software will be disabled. The serial numbers will be checked and duplicate copies will simply not work except under specific circumstances. You will be allowed, for example, to make a copy for your laptop, but that’s all.

Microsoft can change any of these policies in the months ahead, but its doubtful. The company is tired of struggling against illegal software sharing. Exactly how big of a problem it is for Microsoft is unknown. But cracking down on sharing may

force users to look towards alternatives and actually hurt sales in the long term as users realize that free or inexpensive alternatives are outstanding.

This has been the Catch-22 of piracy. There is anecdotal evidence that piracy is actually a positive marketing tool. People will make an illegal copy of a friend’s favorite program and find they like it enough to eventually buy it. Or maybe the person doesn’t buy it, but they don’t buy a competitor’s product either. This is largely how PowerPoint became the standard. All the other presentations programs dried up.

By forcing registration, Microsoft risks losing market share and mind share to cheap, more-than-adequate alternatives. Since it’s been difficult for Microsoft to continually add new features to its suite, the competitors have had time to catch up in the race to offer features. StarOffice is particularly threatening because it allows a user to take a second step and maybe run the program on the efficient Linux OS. The savings a large corporation would make if it bought 10,000 white box machines running StarOffice on Linux could easily be $200 a machine or more, depending on the license agreements.

For any IT department on a tight budget, the alternatives to the Microsoft Office Suite are worth a look. These are also perfect programs for small offices and individuals.